Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Doorway to Yesterday
by ThatGuyHeroBrine
Summary: Everybody knows the many stories of humans ending up in the Pokemon world. They always change into Pokemon, right? Wrong. This time is different. Meet Stephan, a human from 1,000 years in the past, back before humans went extinct. He arrived in a time machine. Unfortunately, it seems that hundreds of time machines leaving at the same time has created 'mystery dungeons'. Uh oh.
1. A beginning of an adventure

It was dark outside. The moon, although full tonight, couldn't shine through the incredibly dense forest's 'roof'. A creature ran across the forest floor, bothered by the darkness. "Dang, it's too dark out! I'll never be able to find my way home!" it said, still running. Suddenly, a bright flash and a loud noise drew its attention. "What was that?" it asked, heading towards the new light source. Several trees had been knocked down in by the blast, and the light was coming from the bright moon. Now that it was lighter, it was easier to see what had landed. It was a large multicolored box, with multiple strange wires and cables running out of the top. As the creature moved toward the box, one of the sides slid open, revealing what looked like a huge stone monster.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Doorway to Yesterday

Stephan had been trapped in that elevator for thousands of years before it had finally landed. He coughed and waved away steam that billowed out of the cold machine. "Geez, how far did I go? They told me it was only going to be a thousand years! But I guess a lot can happen in a thousand-" He stopped abruptly, noticing a strange creature before him. "A totodile? I thought that maybe pokemon would've gone extinct after all that time, but I guess not. Speaking of all that time, where _am_ I?" The totodile before him did _not_ like that there was a strange and foreign creature before it.

"St-stay back! I know some powerful moves, and I-I'm not afraid to use them!" It said, backing away.

"Wow, I really _have_ been gone for a long time! So, pokemon evolved the ability to speak english?" Stephan asked curiously, ignoring how terrified the totodile before him was.

"I-I don't know what you are, b-but st-stay back!" it shouted at him. Stephan blinked.

"Right. Humans probably don't exist anymore. Although, the _others_ should have come out at the same time as me." he said, thinking out loud.

"You're a human? You don't look like what I've been told they look like." the totodile said cautiously. Stephan looked down at his armor, which was built to resemble a Golurk.

"Of course I don't! I'm wearing armor!" he said. "It's to protect me from the future and also the time machine." the totodile looked increasingly confused.

"Time machine?" It asked. "What the heck is that?" Stephan sighed.

"Alright, let's start over. I'm Stephan, and I'm from the distant past. That thing behind me is a time machine. It can take me anywhere, anytime. Unfortunately, I think it was damaged in the 'landing', so it won't be going anywhere anytime soon. What you probably think is my body is only armor, which is big sheets of metal welded together to make a protective suit. Of course, my armor is cybernetically enhanced, so…" He said, saying everything he could think to say. The totodile stared at him funnily.

"Gee, you sure do like the sound of your own voice! Well, now that i'm pretty sure you're not going to kill me, i'm Hannah. To answer one of the questions you asked me earlier, I have no idea where we are. Somewhere in Midnight Forest, I think. I honestly think we should go… I don't like the looks of that!" the totodile, presumably female, pointed at the time machine, which began to smoke violently. Stephan turned around. The time machine, which had let out steam when he opened the door, was now _smoking_.

"Well, I don't think that's very good either. I've just gotta grab something, and then i'll be right with you." He went back into the time machine. A little later, he came back out with a huge sword. "Alright, now let's get out of here!" They both ran from the time machine, only to realise it was pitch black. Stephan sighed once more. "Alright computer-" he started, only to be interrupted by a sharp female voice.

"Computer? _Computer?_ What am I, just a thing? I _prefer_ the name Siri!" it shouted, startling the strange duo.

"What the heck? Computer, when did you become self aware?" Stephan yelled.

"Oh, that? That's a minor detail. What I think is more important is that YOU STILL WON'T CALL ME SIRI!" Stephan wasn't sure whether to take 'Siri' seriously or not. He decided to do the former.

"Alright then _Siri_ , turn on the lights." he told his suit's AI.

"Okay, since you asked _nicely_." it (she?) said, doing as she was asked. The darkness was pierced by two bright beams of light. "You know, I can't hold the lights on at this setting for very long, so we should get out of here fast." After Siri had stopped talking, the two _living_ beings continued to run through the not-so-blackness.

"Who- _What_ was that?" Hannah asked Stephan. Stephan turned his head to look at her, forgetting that the lights were on the helmet. "Aghh my eyes!" Hannah shouted, covering her eyes and stumbling.

"Argh, sorry!" Stephan said, turning his head away and helping Hannah up. "To answer your question, that was the Voice Inside My Head, who apparently prefers to be called Siri. Of course, she's not _actually_ inside my head. Only the helmet." They continued running for a while. "Do you have any idea where we're going?" Stephan asked Hannah worriedly.

"Not a clue. But we're bound to end up somewhere." she responded. It was beginning to get darker, and they encountered a cave. "Hey, why is it getting darker?" Hannah asked Stephan. To both of their surprise, Siri responded.

"Low battery. I dimmed the lights to conserve power. Hey, why don't we go into that cave until daylight? I can turn off all unnecessary functions until then." she said. Stephan made a face.

"Low battery? How long have we been running?" Stephan muttered. "Siri's right-" Stephan started, interrupted by Siri saying "As per usual." Stephan rolled his eyes and continued. "-We should stay in this cave until daylight. Actually, are there any _wild_ pokemon?"

"Not really, no. But-" Hannah started, only to be cut off.

"Good. Then let's rest here." Stephan said, running into the cave, closely followed by Hannah. They ran through the cave for a while, only to somehow run into broad daylight.

Siri made a lot of loud beeping noises, before stuttering loudly "Whaaaaaaat? But we- what- how- It was just night- Wait, we're not in the same universe anymore… still, HOW?" Siri started yammering on and on about how it wasn't possible according to all known laws of physics.

"Where are we?" Stephan asked, to noone in particular.

"This is what I was _going_ to tell you about before we came in here! This is a Mystery Dungeon. Luckily for us, I'm pretty sure this one is only one floor." Upon seeing the look of confusion on Stephan's face, she elaborated further. "A Mystery Dungeon is an anomaly that occurs when spacetime is messed up. Of course, no-one knows when they started appearing, and some say they've been around forever. Time travels differently in a mystery dungeon, so that no matter how long you spend in one, it's always the end of the day you left. Random items appear, ones lost long ago. Same with money. It's easy to get lost, but on a one floor mystery dungeon (which are becoming more common), you just have to find the exit to leave. It should look like a stone staircase." she finished. Stephan stared, open mouthed.

"How do you _know_ all of this stuff?" he said. Hannah looked at him.

"Well, i've always wanted to be on an exploration team. Before you ask, they're groups of adventurers who explore mystery dungeons and help other pokemon by completing tasks. These can range from delivering groceries, to capturing wanted outlaws." she responded, very matter-of-factly. Siri had finally calmed down, now that she knew what was going on.

"Okay, so. Seeing as how we're here, I can make a map of this place for any other explorers who, well… want to explore." Siri said in the same tone of voice as Hannah.

"It's no use. The thing about mystery dungeons is that they change every time someone enters. But you should still make a map, you have _no idea_ how easy it is to get lost in here." Hannah stated. Stephan shook his head.

"We should get going. It looks like it's going to get dark soon. And also I kinda want to get the heck out of here." he said. The other two agreed and they started to wander away… in the completely wrong direction. They soon encountered a wild rattata. Fortunately, it was asleep. "Hang on a sec, I thought you said there _weren't_ any wild pokemon!" Stephan said, pulling out his yellow sword.

"There _aren't_! But here is a different story. You know, because it's a spacetime anomaly. Also, what's with the sword?" Hannah responded.

"It's because unlike pokemon, humans can't use moves. The sword can simulate a couple moves, but not very many." Siri told her. "It also can simulate any type, if needed. Same with the suit." Hannah stopped walking.

"Do you have any idea how long we've been walking for? I feel like we're going in the wrong direction." They stopped.

"Hang on a second, we've been walking in circles! The dungeon has been looping for hours… Hang on, I think the rattata spotted us…" Siri noted. Stephan pulled out his sword.

"Um, I don't think that will be necessary…" Hannah said. Stephan shook his head.

"Siri, Tennis Racquet!" he shouted. Siri replied with a "fine" and the sword began to glow. When the light died down, there was no sword. It was now a tennis racquet. "Alright, let's just get rid of this." Stephan raised the racquet high and smacked the rattata as hard as he could as if it was a golf ball. It flew off into the air, and landed, completely stunned, about seventy feet away.

"Wow! You can transform your sword into other objects?" Hannah asked.

"Yep. It comes in handy pretty often." Stephan replied, before whispering to Siri "I didn't actually think it would work! I guess we got lucky." to which Siri replied "Yeah. I guess." Hannah walked up to the still-stunned rattata and poked it. Nothing happened.

"That's weird. It doesn't look dead, but it sure is acting like it." She poked it again. Nothing. She picked it up and dropped it… only to discover that it didn't even fall. It just floated. Stephan looked at it and his mouth opened in shock.

"Woah. I never expected this to happen." he said. "Siri, could you run a check on all of the suit's systems? You know, see if the time machine messed anything up?" he asked the AI.

"Alright. Running system check… Error. Four anomalies discovered. Anomaly one: Suit AI corrupted. Intensity: Critically Severe. Analysis: Delete immediately. Anomaly two: Left fist spatial corruption. Intensity: Severe. Analysis: Danger, shutdown suit immediately. Anomaly three: Right fist temporal corruption. Intensity: Severe. Analysis: Danger, shutdown suit immediately. Anomaly four: W.E.P.N. severe temporal disruption. Intensity: Critically Severe. Analysis: Shutdown immediately. Have a nice day." she said, losing her intelligent voice for the duration of the system check. "What? I'm not corrupted! I mean, do I _sound_ corrupted?" she asked Stephan. Stephan was busy trying to process all of the things Siri had just said.

"Uhh, considering how you're _self aware_ , i'd say that yeah, you're definitely corrupted." Stephan responded. "Hang on, i've only seen _two_ of the four anomalies. It said that the fists are also corrupted… I'll have to check later. Still, having the power to freeze things in time is pretty nifty." Hannah was poking the frozen rattata with a stick. It stayed frozen.

"Alright, I think we should probably work our way out of here." Hannah said, dropping the stick.

"Good idea." responded Siri. Hannah cringed.

"Can you not respond to things I say? ...It's kind of unnerving to be talking to something that you can't see." she said. Siri sighed. Suddenly, a strange human woman appeared out of thin air.

"That better?" the woman asked.

"Not really." Hannah responded. They started walking again. Nothing very eventful happened, other than Siri showing Stephan that he couldn't freeze stuff if he turned off the W.E.P.N. They fought a couple more enemies, and found the exit, which looked like the beginning of a forest. Once they had left the mystery dungeon, Siri's holographic form glitched and disappeared.

"Not enough sunlight." Siri explained before anyone could ask her why she had disappeared. They wandered through the forest for a few minutes before they came out into the open. Siri, now having enough light to project a hologram, appeared again. Stephan looked around at the field that slightly resembled the dungeon they had just left, except for the city that lay a couple hundred feet away.

"Okay, now what?" Stephan asked.

 **Alright. So, Siri is obviously named after the iPhone's virtual assistant. Her holographic form resembles an adult female human, but she also resembles a ghost. She can't create a hologram without enough light, due to the fact that a hologram is pretty much just modified light.**


	2. In which the characters join a team

**Last time on** **DRAGON BALL Z** **AHEM I MEAN Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Doorway to Yesterday, we met all of those THREE IMPORTANT CHARACTERS. That leaves like, two more important guys, so STAY TUNED FOR NOW!**

"Okay, now what?" Stephan asked.

"Isn't it obvious? We go to that city!" Hannah said. Siri's ghostlike form rolled it's eyes.

"Let's go then. I'm bored of standing here." she said. The very strange trio began to trek toward the city. It was a very uneventful trek, and they mostly just walked. Once they reached the city, Hannah pointed out that they had to go through the entrance, rather than just walking into the city. The city was very awkwardly placed, being entirely skyscrapers and no shorter outlying buildings. It was all grassland up to the first skyscraper. Anyways, they made it to the entrance of the city.

"Well, we're here." Siri stated. They walked down the main street, ignoring the many screams of "A GHOST!" until they came upon a skyscraper.

"Geez, how tall is that building?" Stephan asked. Hannah looked up to the top, which was hidden in the clouds.

"Well, nobody knows. The top of the building is a mystery dungeon, oddly enough. It's too dangerous to go up. The elevator is the only known way to even reach the top, as flying types and ghost types encounter an invisible barrier." she said. Stephan stared at the immensely tall building.

"How come pokemon live in there if there's a mystery dungeon?" he asked. Hannah rolled her eyes.

"Well, the dungeon is only at the _top_ of the building, isn't it? Therefore, it is safe to live beneath it." she responded. They entered the building. There were two elevators at the back, one was boarded off and the other was not. "The one that's boarded off is the only one that reaches the mystery dungeon."

"Hannah, how do you know all of this?" Stephan asked.

"I live here." she responded matter-of-factly. The strange trio boarded the safe elevator and went up to the thirty-ninth floor. "This is my floor. My room is that one." She pointed to the room on the other end of the hall. They walked to Hannah's room and went inside. Stephan yawned.

"Can we go to sleep? It's the middle of the night." he said, yawning again. "Also, keep in mind that I haven't slept in over a thousand years. Or eaten, for that matter." He promptly passed out on the floor.

"What is it with you mortals and sleep? I don't sleep and I'm perfectly fine!" Siri said, ignoring the fact that both Hannah and Stephan had fallen asleep.

By the time the sun had risen, Siri had already explored every single room on that floor. She had ignored the many screams of "GHOST" and the fact that most pokemon passed out promptly afterward. Unfortunately, this meant she also missed the fact that one of the pokemon had picked up a phone. "GHOOOOOST!"

Hannah woke up to a silvery, see-through human staring her in the face. "A GHOST!" she screamed, before realizing that it was only Siri. Siri walked away with a smirk on her face.

"Siri, that was rude!" Stephan said, holding a cup of coffee. "Sorry Hannah, apparently she's been doing that all night long."

"Yep." Siri said. She sat down on the couch. "I think I understand why you mortals sleep. There's not much to do by yourself during the night." Stephan shook his head.

"There's much more to it than that, actually." he said. "Anyway, now what are we gonna do? I mean, sitting around all day doing nothing sounds pretty boring."

"Not to me..." Siri muttered. They got up and went over to the elevator. Suddenly, it opened, revealing a trio of pokemon wearing ridiculous devices on their backs. "Pff, what are you guys supposed to be? _Ghostbusters_?" Siri sarcastically asked. One of the pokemon backed away in shock.

"How did you know?" he asked. The second shook his head.

"She's a _ghost_. She _obviously_ knows who we are." he stated.

"Well, let's get rid of her then!" the third pokemon said, turning on the ridiculous device strapped to its back. It aimed the hose end of the device at Siri and tried to suck her in. Unremarkably, nothing happened.

"What!" the second one said. "I thought we enchanted these backpacks to suck in ghosts!" Siri rolled her eyes at the strangers.

"They probably would work, except for one problem: I'm not a ghost." The three pokemon were shocked.

"B-but you're see-through!" said the first one.

"And you can walk through walls!" said the second.

"And you're _dead_!" said the third one.

"Two out of three. I _am_ transparent, and I _can_ walk through walls, but I am _not_ dead." Siri stated.

"How are you not dead?" asked the second pokemon.

"I'm a _hologram_. Modified light. I'm not real. Well, I am real, I just don't have a physical form." Siri stated. "Now, can we get into that elevator? We have a whole lot of nothing to do."

"You shall not paaaass!" shouted the first one, jumping into the doorway of the elevator. The second one smacked him.

"Yes, they shall. Now that we know that she's not a ghost, our work here is done." he said, stepping into the elevator again.

"Team ghostbusters awaaaaaa-" the elevator door slammed closed before the first one could finish his sentence.

"Great, now the elevator's gone." Siri said. "How are we gonna get down?"

"We could walk?" Hannah suggested. She pointed at the staircase. Siri sighed.

"Alright, it's not like we have anything better to do."

About ten minutes later, they finally reached the bottom. Hannah had run out of breath about six minutes in, and so Stephan had to carry her the rest of the way. They collapsed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. "Urghhh…" Hannah groaned. "We should've just waited for the elevator…" they lied there in a heap for a few minutes until they had regained their strength.

"Oof. That was a painful walk." Stephan stated, still slightly trying to catch his breath.

"I wouldn't know, I'm just a trick of the light." Siri said. They all got up and walked out the door. Stephan looked over at Hannah while they walked.

"So, uh… who were those guys?" he asked. Hannah shrugged.

"I don't know. But they said they were called 'team ghostbusters', whatever that means." she told him. "The team part meant that they are an exploration/rescue team, but i've never heard of ghostbusters…" Stephan stopped walking, causing Hannah to bump into him.

"Wait, Ghostbusters? That was a really old movie they made way back in the 1980s! Apparently they were planning on remaking it again before, you know… the apocalypse happened. I knew I recognised those things they were wearing! They must've found an abandoned movie lot and taken those Proton Pack props." Stephan stated. "But, how could they have known it was _ghostbusters_?" Siri's holographic form shook its transparent head.

"They probably didn't. I bet they came up with the name themselves." Siri stated.

"Oh. You're probably right." Stephan said. They started walking again. "So, uh… what should we do? I mean, i'm probably going to be here for the rest of my life, and I would rather spend it doing something rather than nothing." Hannah thought for a moment.

"Why don't we try starting an exploration or rescue team? I mean, that would give us our fair share of stuff to do." she said, awaiting their response.

"Okay!" "Sure, whatever." the other two responded. They headed off to wherever to register as a team.

"What do you mean, _no_?" Hannah shouted at the register crawdaunt.

"I told you, he doesn't have any form of identification and she is a _ghost_." the annoyed crawdaunt said.

"And i've told _you_ , i'm not a ghost!" Siri shouted.

"Why are you two shouting? I mean, I don't really care." Stephan said. Hannah explained.

"Well, without any form of identification, you literally aren't even allowed to _be_ in this city!" she shouted. Stephan gulped.

"But I have my driver's licence!" he shouted, waving said licence in front of the crawdaunt. "That should be plenty of identification!" the crawdaunt rolled its eyes.

"Great, now everyone's shouting." it muttered. "Listen, this 'driver's licence' of yours expired 997 years ago. It _definitely_ doesn't count." Stephan threw his hands up.

"Fine! I'll leave." he walked toward the door and smacked into it. He was too tall to reach the handle. "Stupid door." he muttered. He pulled back his left fist and punched the door. It flew clean off of it's hinges and didn't stop until it hit a wall on the other side of the street. "Woah." he said, his jaw unhinged in surprise. Hannah walked over to him.

"What did you- What the?!" she said, noticing the door was missing. "How hard did you hit it?!" Stephan was in just as much shock as she was.

"I-I don't know! It just flew!" he said. Siri floated over.

"Well, now we know what I meant when I said 'spatial corruption'. Apparently, you can accelerate objects in any direction by hitting them. That could be useful." she said, slightly amused. Stephan was staring at his left fist in shock. The crawdaunt behind the counter, who had actually seen the door fly off of its hinges, was in pure shock. It immediately re-evaluated its decision to deny their request.

"Y-you can be a team n-now, just-please-don't-hurt-me!" it said, holding up some paper.

"Well. We've only been awake for an hour-" Stephan started before being interrupted by Siri, who said "Except me, I don't sleep." Stephan rolled his eyes. "As I was saying, _most of us_ have only been awake for an hour, and already we've encountered a group of pokemon weirder than we are, gotten a week's worth of exercise, and become part of an exploration team." They walked away to where the super-secret base was apparently located. "Hang on, what did we call ourselves again?"

"Team. Literally just Team." Siri responded. "We should probably change it." They found the base, which apparently wasn't so secret after all. "How did we miss _this_ when we came in?" Siri said, gesturing to the 30 story mansion in front of them.

"I don't know. Most of us were too tired, probably." Stephan said.

"But what about me? I wasn't tired!" Siri said angrily. Hannah rolled her eyes and walked up to the building.

"Why don't we do a mission or something? Something easy, like a petty thief or helping someone with their groceries." she said.

"I think I want to TAKE THE LAW INTO MY OWN HANDS." Stephan said. They went inside and looked at the outlaw board. There was exactly one job on it. "Hey Hannah, why do we have to wear these stupid badges?" Stephan asked, messing with the rescue emblem on his chest. "They're really annoying."

"Well, if you faint in a dungeon without one, you'll get stuck in the dungeon. You literally cannot get out. Anyway, let's take this mission. Alright, says here that it's… in the Collapsed Quarry dungeon. Well, what're we waiting for? Off we go!" They ran out of the building, completely forgetting the mission paper… which upon further inspection, was a rank S mission. Uh oh.

 **Quarry Entrance**

They made it, completely out of breath, to the entrance of the quarry. There were several signs warning that the quarry was 'haunted', but there wasn't a ghost in sight. Although, the majority of the signs warned about what had given the quarry it's name. Hannah stared at one of the 'haunted' signs. "This place has ghosts? Last I checked, there were only rock types and grass types here!" Hannah said. Stephan was staring over the railing at the bottom of the quarry. Actually, more at the fog that covered the bottom, as it was too far to even see.

"Geez, how deep is this quarry?" he said. "I can't even see the bottom." Siri stared down the quarry's edge.

"It extends into another universe. There is no bottom." she said. They entered the quarry.

 **Collapsed Quarry**

As Hannah had predicted, there were a lot of rock types. Upon further inspection, half of them had apparently been digging the quarry when it had become a dungeon, and were now doing just that for all of eternity. "Woah…" Hannah said. "That's weird. They completely ignore us, tools long since destroyed, and yet they still hack away at the edges of the quarry." she shuddered. "We shouldn't stay here long…" They continued on in silence. There were a few wild pokemon, which were quickly dealt with. Eventually, after spiraling down the edges of the quarry, the reached the place the bottom was supposed to be.

"Where's the staircase?" Stephan asked, fully drained of energy for the second time that day.

"I don't think there is one." Hannah said, looking up. They had indeed reached the supposed 'bottom' of the quarry. "Wait. There it is." She pointed to an old, stone staircase. They headed down it without further thought.

 **Quarry Tower B1**

The moment they went down the staircase, they knew something was different. They were in some sort of tower. Only… something wasn't right. The walls were made of something similar to the quarry, and there were no windows at all. "Where are we?" Stephan asked to nobody in particular.

"Quarry Tower. It's the real dungeon. The Collapsed Quarry is merely the entrance." Hannah responded. They walked around on the open floor. There were no walls, but there was a surprising amount of debris on the… roof. They walked around, looking for the staircase, and they found it. Only, the stairs 'ascended' from the roof as if it was the floor.

"Huh." Siri said, examining the staircase. "It appears that the mystery dungeon has turned the entire tower… on it's head. Weird." they jumped into the hole in the floor (roof?) and moved to the next floor.

 **Quarry Tower B2**

It instantly became obvious the tower was upside down. There were tables on the floor, and lights on the roof. There were walls and doors as well. "Woah. What do you think is holding those tables to the floor like that?" Stephan said, looking up at one of the tables. There was even a vase with flowers in it on the table. Siri examined it.

"Apparently, gravity." she said. Stephan reached up and grabbed the vase, letting it go. It fell upward and clattered to the floor, shattering into pieces.

"Woah. That's trippy." They walked through a few rooms, trying to find the staircase. On the way, they encountered a wild geodude. Similarly to everything else in the tower (except Siri, Stephan and Hannah), it was on the floor. Stephan changed his sword into a hammer and dealt with it quickly. The room the geodude was guarding apparently held the staircase, so they jumped into the hole in the roof.

 **Quarry Tower B7**

Several floors later, they encountered what they were looking for. Their Rescue Emblems (and Siri) alerted them that the outlaw was supposedly hiding on this floor. Looking around, it was obvious which way he was. There was a door made out of solid gold to their right. They tried to push open the door, but nothing happened. Stephan turned his sword into a flamethrower and melted a hole through the door. Hannah sprayed the molten gold with a Watergun to cool it off, and they stepped through into the room. There was a massive pile of money and items on the roof. "You IDIOTS!" a voice suddenly shouted at the trio. "You couldn't have gone AROUND the door?!" A haunter materialised in front of them. "Do you have ANY IDEA how much GOLD that door is made of?!" Hannah raised a finger and was about to say something, but she was interrupted. "It was a RHETORICAL QUESTION!" the haunter shouted at her.

"Well, we don't care!" Siri shouted at the haunter. "We just want to take the law into our own hands and arrest you!" The haunter turned his gaze over to her.

"Ah, a projection! Now, who came up with _you_? I know you're not real." it said. "No creature on this planet looks like _that_." Siri looked insulted.

"I know i'm a projection! But that doesn't mean i'm not _real_!" she shouted, smacking the haunter in the face. Of course, she was still only a hologram, so her hand passed through it.

"So. What was that you were saying earlier?" the haunter said. "About arresting me? Yeah, i'm sorry, but I can't let that happen." He pulled what looked like a can of spray paint out and aimed the nozzle at Stephan. "This is the part where you leave." He sprayed Stephan for a solid two seconds before he realized that they were gone. "Huh. I forgot that Rescue Emblems could do that."

 **Quarry Entrance**

Hannah opened her eyes. "Huh?" She, Stephan, and Siri were at the top of the Quarry. "How did we get up here?" Siri pointed to the Rescue Emblems.

"Apparently, I can activate those and take us out of dungeons. It's… complicated." she said. Stephan started giggling. Hannah looked over at him.

"What's his problem?" she asked. Stephan began to laugh harder. Siri stared.

"I… I don't know." Stephan apparently couldn't handle himself anymore and began laughing so hard that he couldn't breathe. "I think we may need a doctor."

 **Whitewall City**

"Well?" Hannah asked the female doctor. She looked very closely at Stephan, who was no longer laughing as hard, but was also babbling things that made no sense, like 'chili makes chicken nuggets taste like piñatas!' and then cackling madly.

"I've seen enough. This… creature - human, you called it? - has been hit by Laughing Gas. Now, before you ask what it is, keep in mind that this stuff is VERY illegal. Laughing Gas is a _very_ powerful neurotoxin that supposedly switches the places of the conscience and the sub-conscience. Meaning, this isn't the human you know, but more… his random thoughts, the ones that don't make sense. I… don't think that there's anything we can do." the doctor said solemnly. Hannah stared at the insane version of her companion.

"Well - okay. I guess we should leave him alone for a while?" she said. The doctor nodded. They both left, leaving Stephan alone.

 **Hello again. Stephan's fine, I wouldn't remove literally the most important character in the story (so early on). Just wait for chapter 3, where we watch as Siri saves Stephan's sanity.**


End file.
